


Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Luke and Harvey

by literally_no_idea



Series: Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH) Main Series [19]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Blood, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Medical Procedures, SDfSH 'verse, Service Animals, Service Dogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 11:57:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18194288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literally_no_idea/pseuds/literally_no_idea
Summary: The second litter Natasha looks at has a good prospect for Luke’s dog. Part of the problem is she’s limited by gender; Luke’s a big guy, and even in some of the largest dog breeds, the males barely get up to the size she needs for his dog. But she lucks out in the second litter she looks at, and she takes the 3 month old English Mastiff puppy home from Virginia the same day.--please note that blood is heavily discussed in this part of the series as part of Harvey's training. if this is triggering for you or something you find uncomfortable, this may not be a story you want to read.





	Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Luke and Harvey

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to the series, or if you're new here, welcome!
> 
> This part of the series mentions blood a lot as part of Harvey's training. In light of that, I'll be posting two more stories today (as the next story is somewhat sad and doesn't focus on the dogs, and the other will be back to a new dog and handler). Notes at the end of this story will also be facts that include some mentions of blood.
> 
> Other than that, enjoy!

The second litter Natasha looks at has a good prospect for Luke’s dog. Part of the problem is she’s limited by gender; Luke’s a big guy, and even in some of the largest dog breeds, the males barely get up to the size she needs for his dog. But she lucks out in the second litter she looks at, and she takes the 3 month old English Mastiff puppy home from Virginia the same day.

 

She’s already picked a name for the dog; Harvey, meaning “battle worthy.” She texts Tony a picture of the puppy in the passenger seat, and starts the drive home. She carries the puppy up to the communal floor of the tower, and finds everyone waiting in the living room, excited.

 

“Welcome home, Harvey!” Tony shouts, and then everyone’s surrounding Natasha, trying to pet the new pup.

 

“Okay, okay, hold on, boys, you’ll all get to pet him, he’s not going anywhere,” Natasha reminds them, rolling her eyes, and they back up so she can put the puppy down on the rug between the three couches. Dogs and humans alike plop down on the floor on their bellies, playing with Harvey. It’s good socialization for Harvey, if nothing else, so Natasha just goes to grab some different treats and see what Harvey prefers, that way she’ll be able to keep his attention when they’re training.

 

Natasha’s barely gotten the treats out of the walk in pantry in the kitchen when she finds herself surrounded by dogs, all of them waiting for a chance to earn treats. She laughs, waving them away. “Back up, you dorks, this isn’t for you.” The dogs retreat to the living room, and she follows them, one of each type of treat in her right hand and her clicker in the other.

 

She taps Clint on the shoulder, and he scoots over from where he’s laying in front of Harvey so Natasha can sit, holding the treats out for Harvey to sniff. She runs through a few quick commands with him, giving him at least an idea of what sit, down, and paw mean, and watches his reaction to each of the different treats. He loves duck and lamb treats, she finds, but he still likes everything else except for salmon. She makes a mental note of it, then puts away the clicker and settles on an armchair to watch as everyone continues playing with Harvey.

 

She texts a picture to Frank and Jessica of the heroes and their service dogs in a circle around the puppy, with the caption “bring Whiskey and Sable, it’ll be fun :D” Jessica sends her back a middle finger emoji and a thumbs up emoji, and Frank sends back a “No.” Whatever. She’ll win him over eventually.

 

* * *

 

It takes Natasha longer to train Harvey that it had for most of the other dogs; she has to go through some trial and error to figure out exactly what Harvey will be able to alert to, and how to get him to alert to it properly. With a condition like Luke’s, she has to get a little creative to make training work; she needs a way to recreate internal bleeding without actually injuring herself, so she asks Tony if he can figure out a way to make something that could replicate the issue. He gets back to her three weeks later, handing her a small, sac-like object.

 

“Okay, so, it’s made with a thin mucous membrane, and if we draw some of your blood we can fill it with that and then insert this into, like, some part of your body where there’s space. I’m an engineer, not a doctor, I can call Dr. Cho to help with that part. Then, when you’re ready to do the training, you just activate it with the blue button on this remote, and it’ll release a small portion of the blood onto the outside surface of the membrane. When you’ve gotten the training response you need, then just click the green button, and it’ll reabsorb the blood and you’ll be good as new again.”

 

Tony hands her the remote, and Natasha takes a moment to just stare at him. “You created this in three weeks?” she asks, and Tony shrugs.

 

“Well, you said you needed a way to make this work, so. I’m all about fixing problems. Besides, this could actually have a lot of practical applications in emergency rooms, if I can figure out a way to make it controllable and small enough to move between organs, which I’m sure I can figure out, because hey, I’m a Stark, it’s kind of what we do. This could be a way to help people with internal bleeding problems or life threatening injuries around the world.”

 

Natasha just shakes her head in disbelief. “Okay, well, let me know when Dr. Cho can get here to help with this, if she thinks it can work. Either way, can we do a blood draw today? I’m going to just have Harvey practice with alerting to the blood itself, for now, before we have him learn to do it when it’s actually inside me.”

 

Tony smiles, gesturing to the elevator. “Let’s go up and meet Brucie in the lab, I’m sure we can get this done in no time.”

 

* * *

 

Natasha teaches Harvey how to alert by pawing at her leg, then starts training Harvey to alert to blood itself. She’s done enough research to feel confident that this is the best way to start training his medical alert tasks, so she gets a small sample of the blood Bruce had drawn for her out of the box in the fridge (helpfully labeled “Natasha’s blood, don’t take”), and smears some on her ankle.

 

She holds her ankle out for Harvey to sniff. Once he’s sniffed the blood, she asks him to alert, and she praises him when he does. She repeats this a few times, first having him paw at her leg, then asking him to nudge her leg near the blood with his nose. Then she wipes the blood off, smears some more by her knee this time, and repeats the process. When she’s had him alert to that a few times, she wipes the blood off again, praises Harvey, and ends the training session, taking the puppy to go play tug of war in the living room.

 

* * *

 

When Harvey’s gotten the hang of alerting and indicating where the blood is, Natasha starts putting the blood in two places, showing him how to alert and then indicate both places. Then she starts putting the blood in places where Harvey can’t see, under her pant leg or under the sleeve of her shirt, so he has to alert and point it out by smell alone.

 

She tries tricking him by putting some of the blood in her mouth, but he figures it out quickly enough, and when he starts to alert correctly and consistently to wherever Natasha puts the blood, she decides he’s ready, and asks Tony to call Dr. Cho.

 

Dr. Cho flies out from South Korea a week later, and confirms with Natasha that she’s willing to do this. “I trust that Tony’s device works, but I still want to hear it from you directly that you’re sure about this,” she tells Natasha.

 

“I’m sure, Dr. Cho. There’s no one better in these respective fields than you two. And if this can help someone else, I’m all for it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past; I’m not going to make the mistake of letting someone else get hurt again if I can help it.”

 

Dr. Cho nods, and then Natasha is put under anaesthesia while they perform the procedure.

 

* * *

 

Natasha wakes up in a hospital bed in the med bay with a barely noticeable scar just above her right hip and Tony’s reassurance that everything went fine, the scar is just so they’ll be able to find the same spot to take the device out again later. She’s cleared to leave the med bay the same day as the procedure, so she takes the opportunity to continue Harvey’s training, because there’s no time like the present.

 

She starts Harvey’s training session, going through some of his basic obedience commands and other tasks, and then she takes out the remote, pressing the blue button (“just remember,” Tony had told her, “blue lets the blood out, green puts it back in. Blue, Bad. Green, Good.”) a little light on the remote blinks, letting her know it worked, and before she can even say anything, Harvey alerts. “Show,” she asks, her command for him to point out where the blood is, and he nudges right above where the scar is. She praises and treats him, then presses the green button, and the light blinks twice to tell her they’re good again.

 

Natasha practices a few more times just holding the remote, and when she’s confident in both the device’s safety and Harvey’s alerts, she puts the remote in her pocket, activating it using the braille Tony had added to the buttons to figure out which one to press. She continues doing short training sessions with Harvey over the next few weeks, and when he seems to have figured out the pattern, she starts pressing the buttons at random times while working on other parts of his training. Without fail, he alerts and indicates the right place, and Natasha’s honestly impressed.

 

She goes to talk to Tony in his workshop about creating more of the devices so she can vary placement and number of injuries, and he just grins at her, pulls open one of the drawers of his desk and reveals three more of the devices, smaller than the first. “I thought you’d never ask,” he says. “Let me call Dr. Cho again.”

 

* * *

 

The second procedure goes just as quickly and smoothly as the first, and Natasha wakes up to three new small scars, one just above her stomach, one near her left collar bone, and one at the base of her skull. She’s a little nervous about the last one, but Dr. Cho reassures her that it’s fine. “Mr. Stark and I talked about it. With the size of his devices, they’re composition, and the placement, there shouldn’t be any problems. I wouldn’t have put it in if I wasn’t confident in it’s safety.”

 

It’s still a little unsettling, but Natasha nods, because if Dr. Cho is confident, it’s okay. It’ll be fine. Really. She does ask Dr. Cho to stick around for a moment while she tests that one, and once she’s tested it four times without any problems, she finally relaxes and apologizes, and Dr. Cho flies back out to South Korea. Natasha decides to take a day off and continue Harvey’s training in the morning.

 

* * *

 

Natasha finds that Harvey is really, really good at his job. No matter which of the devices she activates, he alerts and identifies them consistently during training sessions, and eventually Natasha starts taking this part of his training the rest of the way, activating the devices at random while in the living room on the communal floor. He alerts every time, and Natasha’s genuinely amazed. She takes him on a trip to a pet friendly cafe, and when she activates the devices there, he continues to alert accurately. Confident, she texts Jessica asking if Jessica can get Luke to the tower later that day. Jessica asks if she’s invited too, sending an alcohol emoji, and Natasha snorts but texts back yes. Jessica tells her they’ll both come by the tower around six, and Natasha heads home to let Tony and the others know.

 

* * *

 

Jessica and Luke arrive at exactly six pm, and Jessica has Whiskey with her. “You still haven’t explained why we’re here,” Luke is telling Jessica, and he hesitates when he sees Tony, Natasha, Bruce, and Dr. Cho waiting for them in the living room. “I’m not about to get killed, right? This isn’t some  _ Get Out _ movie bullshit, is it?” Jessica laughs.

 

“No, it isn’t, get your ass in here, Luke.”

 

“Subtle, Jess,” Natasha says dryly, and Jessica shrugs.

 

“What? Just tell him.”

 

“Actually, I’m with Jessica for once, can we just tell me?” Luke asks, and Natasha grabs Harvey’s leash, walking him over to Luke.

 

“Luke, this is Harvey. Jessica was explaining the internal bleeding problems. We think he could help you.”

 

Luke looks at Harvey, frowning. “What? I don’t get it. That makes no sense.”

 

“He’s a medical alert and PTSD service dog. He’ll be able to identify if you’re bleeding internally, and where, and he’ll help keep you awake until someone can come help you,” Natasha says, holding out the leash. Luke takes it.

 

“Okay, but how does he know how to do that? I really doubt you’ve had tons of people willing to just suddenly bleed internally so you could train this. You didn’t go out and attack people to do this, did you?”

 

Tony takes the question while Natasha’s still trying to figure out if it’s a good or bad thing that Luke thinks she would just attack random people for this. “No, absolutely not! Why would we do that when you’ve got three brilliant brains in the room that came up with a much better solution! Really, it’s ingenious, if you ask me, I’m amazing.”

 

“That’s so smart!” Jessica interrupts, “But I came here for booze, that was the deal. So are we going to drink, or what?”

 

Tony makes a wide gesture to the dining room. “After you, Funshine Bear.” He and Diva follow Jessica and Whiskey out of the room, and Luke turns back to Natasha.

 

“So, they made implantable devices that could simulate internal bleeding, without the actual damage,” Natasha explains, “Tony designed them, Bruce double checked them, and Dr. Cho triple checked them and then implanted them. That’s how I trained Harvey to alert. He’s been almost perfectly accurate and consistent.”

 

Luke’s eyes widen as he processes that. “You actually had devices put inside you… just so you could train a dog for me?” He sounds surprised. “Where were they? Won’t that leave scars?”

 

Natasha points out where the three would be under her shirt, then turns to show him the spot at the base of her skull. “The scars are temporary. It’s just so Dr. Cho knows where to take them back out from, and then she’ll get rid of the scars entirely.”

 

Luke nods. “You put a lot into this.”

 

“It’s a minor inconvenience to me. It could be life or death for you. That was an investment I was willing to make. One that I wanted to make.” She lets that sink in for a moment. “So, let me show you what his commands are, and I’ll be able to send you on your way.”

 

* * *

 

Luke leaves a half hour later with Harvey at his side, and Jessica leaves with Whiskey not long after that, dropping a very, very drunk Tony into Bruce’s arms with a snort and a “he’s yours now,” hopping in the elevator and leaving before Bruce can respond.

 

“Bruuuuucie,” Tony whines, “I want one for Christmas. She’s so fun to drink with, we  _ have _ to bring her back again.”

 

Bruce maneuvers his way under Tony’s right arm, Smash standing on Bruce’s other side and Diva taking Tony’s left, and he looks over his shoulder at Natasha and Dr. Cho. “You guys will be fine, right? I think I need to get him back to his bed. He should know better than to drink with someone with an enhanced metabolism, but he still does it.”

 

Dr. Cho nods. “I think we’re okay, Dr. Banner. I’ll call you if we need you.”

 

Bruce, Tony, and the service dogs head to the elevator, and Natasha and Dr. Cho follow behind them, waiting a few seconds before pressing the elevator button again. “You understated your commitment,” Dr. Cho tells Natasha while they wait. When Natasha raises an eyebrow questioningly, Dr. Cho shrugs. “I’m not saying that there was much risk in doing the procedures with Tony, Bruce and I involved, but still, having something put into your body and then taken out again, especially when it’s something that’s never been tested before? That takes a level of commitment beyond what most people would do, even for themselves. The fact that you would do that for someone else shows a lot about the kind of person you are.”

 

The elevator dings, and the doors open. “Now let’s go get those out of you.” Natasha steps into the elevator with Dr. Cho, and she thinks about what Dr. Cho said. She’s not sure how to feel about it, but she’s also finding herself thrown off by people’s comments more and more lately. She still hasn’t figured out how she feels by the time she’s put under the anaesthesia, and when she wakes up groggily after the procedure’s finished, she doesn’t quite remember the conversation, but she can’t ignore the feeling of relief that the devices are gone.

 

She takes a few days to recover after, even though she doesn’t necessarily need to, just because she thinks she needs a break before she starts working on anything else besides Avengers business anytime soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Service dog facts of the day:
> 
> -In this story, Harvey is trained to alert to the smell of blood. This is actually very similar to how diabetic alert dogs are trained! So, to train a diabetic alert dog, saliva samples are taken from their future handler, when their blood sugar is at various levels, from very low to very high.
> 
> One video that shows part of the training of a diabetic alert dog can be found on Youtube [ here ](https://youtu.be/BK73WGqmEwU)
> 
> Unfortunately, there aren't captions on that video (sorry for my other caption-using folks), but a website that describes this process can be found [ here ](https://k94life.org/diabetes-alert/)
> 
> I'd also like to note that I don't actually know if what was mentioned in this story would actually work as a method of detecting internal bleeding. As far as I know, there is no such technology that currently exists to replicate the condition either, and I know nothing about anatomy so I'm just assuming that Tony and Dr. Cho were smart about placement and the devices were able to go there. I don't know. I only know how my body sucks, not how it actually should work or anything.
> 
> Bruce/Hulk's dog being named Smash and the original concept for this series comes from AO3 user [ thingswithwings ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingswithwings/pseuds/thingswithwings) and their story [ "Five Ways to Get In Touch with Your Inner Mild-Mannered Scientist" ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/429749?view_adult=true)
> 
> With that all said, if you want to see other drabbles and notes related to this series, or want to talk to me about this series or anything else for that matter, you can find me over on tumblr [ here ](https://servicedogsforsuperheroes.tumblr.com)
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!


End file.
